Video displays are used in a wide range of devices. Such devices include, but are not limited to digital televisions, wireless communication devices, personal digital assistants (PDAs), laptop or desktop computers, workstations, digital cameras, video cameras, digital media players, video gaming devices, portable movie players, e-readers, tablet computers, cellular or satellite radio telephones, smartphones, and the like.
Video display systems often include a host device (such as a computer) that generates a stream of video content for a client device (such as the display). In many cases, the host device may include its own display, yet still communicate video data to the client device, which may include a larger display than the host device. Different techniques and standards are being developed to allow such video content to be communicated from the host device to the client device over a high speed wireless link so that both the host device and the client device can display the video content.
Some video display systems generate a stream of video content referred to as a signal composed stream (SCS). The SCS comprises one single video stream, although the video content may still include different areas that can sometimes appear to be different streams. In this case, a host device may generate the SCS, and a client device can receive the SCS from the host device and render the signal video stream in order to display the content. Essentially, with SCS, the host device sends frames of “screen shots” (e.g., the entire content of the display buffer). The screen shots could possibly include different windows of content, but the different windows of content in SCS are not separate streams, but are simply part of the screen shots.
In contrast to systems that generate SCS, other types of video display systems generate a stream of video content referred to as a decomposed multi-stream (DMS). The DMS comprises two or more different video streams of content, which may correspond to separate regions of a viewable area, or possibly overlapping regions within a viewable area. In this case, the host device may generate the DMS that comprises the two or more different video streams of content, and a client device can receive the DMS from the host device and render video on a display screen that includes the two or more different video streams of content included in the DMS. The host device may render the different streams of the DMS in the different areas of a screen, and in some cases, the different areas of the different streams within the DMS may overlap.